Prep Girls Soccer: Bulldogs season ends in overtime

Friday

OAK HILLS — It would be difficult to associate anything with an explosion during Centennial/Corona and Oak Hills’ CIF-Southern Section Division 3 quarterfinal matchup Friday afternoon.

The weather was bitterly cold and windy from start to finish. The cold only multiplied as the sun descended behind the home bleachers into the second half and overtime.

The very thought of heat and friction from anything other than the wind seemed like an impossibility.

But Centennial bucked any science of thermodynamics when junior forward Giselle Michel lofted a long ball toward the net that found its way across the goal line late in the first overtime period to secure a spot in the semifinals with the 2-1 victory. Centennial will face Pacifica, which scored a 1-0 victory against Canyon on Friday, in the semifinals.

The loss ends the best season in program history, with the Bulldogs going 21-2-2 and securing the first Mojave River League title in school history. Over the past two seasons, Oak Hills is a combined 44-6-5. The Bulldogs were the No. 4 seed in Div. 3 while Centennial was No. 5.

“It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but it’s a great season nonetheless,” Oak Hills coach Joe Kulm said.

The Huskies bench, which had been huddled around a small heater and had every member covered in blankets and jackets, leapt up and swarmed Michel on the far sideline after the goal.

The goal came in the final minute of the first overtime period and with the wind going the Huskies way. The teams would have switched sides for the second overtime period, which was an advantage Centennial coach Evan VanderWeerd said his team needed to use.

“We were needing to press and we were needing to press immediately because our time was running out,” VanderWeerd said. “Up here in the High Desert, man, the wind is always blowing. So it’s always a bear up here. Our girls aren’t used to that.”

The Centennial players joked after the game that the ball was meant to be a cross only to have the wind aid it across the goal line for the Huskies. VanderWeerd certainly wasn’t complaining about the result.

“If it went in the net, I have no idea what it was supposed to be,” VanderWeerd said. “If it goes in the net I consider it a shot, right?”

Oak Hills went ahead 1-0 on Gabriella Bike’s goal 10 minutes into the match. Bike took a pass from Amya Lawson-Kitchen and directed a low shot just out of the reach of goalkeeper Zoe Aguirre.

The Bulldogs held that lead until Centennial tied up the match on Alexa Hurtado’s shot into the upper right corner of the net about 12 minutes into the second half.

Oak Hills was on its heels for much of the second half with the wind blowing toward the Oak Hills goal. But the Bulldogs were largely able maintain defensive structure and thwart the Huskies in close.

But then the Bulldogs lost the coin flip before overtime and had to spend another 10 minutes battling the wind and a pressing team.

“It’s just tough in the overtime. It really came down to they had the wind at their back for first 10 minutes of the overtime,” Kulm said. “The conditions dictated that everybody’s legs were done. This kind of weather, your legs are shot quick. Going into the wind an additional 10 minutes after playing against the wind for that 40 minutes made it tough to stay alive.

“If we just swap sides I think we would have won the game. Sometimes you get a break that goes your way and we just didn’t get that break.”

Matthew Peters can be reached at 760-955-5365 or mpeters@vvdailypress.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @DP_MattPeters.

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